06/12/2002 By David Loshak
The emerging technology of virtual bronchoscopy may be a promising, non-invasive way of identifying bronchial obstructions and endoluminal lesions. It might also help to assess the tracheobronchial tree beyond stenoses, preliminary evaluation suggests.
Virtual bronchoscopy is a novel technique which uses three-dimensional reconstruction of two-dimensional helical computed tomographic images for non-invasive evaluation of the tracheobronchial tree. But, it does not yet detect subtle mucosal lesions.
This means that it may not be appropriate for identifying pre-malignant lesions in the respiratory tract, report specialists at the Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center and the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States.
Fibreoptic bronchoscopy remains the standard way of evaluating airway patency and mucosal lesions. Nonetheless, the specialists emphasise, virtual bronchoscopy may provide additional information that could assist the management of pulmonary malignant tumours.
The specialists conducted a study to assess the diagnostic potential of virtual bronchoscopy by comparing its images with fibreoptic bronchoscopic findings in 32 consecutive patients who had thoracic malignant tumours.
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